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Bilateral TKR Cowgal's post surgery thread

skigirl said:
There was an article somewhere---I don't know how scientific this survey was--so take it with a grain of salt!

But the conclusion was that the Doctor usually tells you not to do activities that he does not do and might be afraid to do. So, if the doc says no golf, then probably he is a tennis player.

My doctor lives in a sports crazy area, he said if you do something and your knee hurts or gets swollen--don't do that anymore!!!!
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Spot on. I picked my doc on his surgical reputation and the fact that I knew he was an avid tennis player. No way was I going to a golfer. :tennis:
 
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Are you able to get another appointment with your PT to ask all those questions, @cowgal? Write a list of everything you wish you'd asked and bring it to that appointment or to the next one you have with your OS or PA.

I had only one TKR, not a Bilateral, so the advice I got from my PT may not be applicable to you. I don't anticipate having the other knee done (:::crossing fingers and toes:::). I used to contradance (some of the movements are like those in square dancing, but it's done in lines where couples move up and down the line and make cool patterns). There's a lot twirling on the right leg, but no jumping or stomping. I think the twirling contributed to the wear I experienced in my right knee. The physical therapist said contradancing would be OK with my new knee, but not swing or jitterbug. We also talked about various folk dances. No clogging, no Irish step dancing, no Scottish country dancing, no Russian sword dancing, nothing that has a lot of heel, toe, hop, hop, hop.

This is only an anecdote, but I know someone who had to have a new replacement put in because he was sitting on a wall that was not too high off the ground. He jumped down, landed wrong, and destroyed his TKR.

I was told by my ob/gyn that I am not at risk for osteoporosis because I'm overweight. My bones get a lot of strengthening exercise just through my everyday living. Do you know what your bone density is now, and how likely you are to develop osteoporosis? If you still really want to do a tandem jump at 70, you could always get an evaluation at age 68 or 69.

Glad your recovery appears to have avoided any more hiccups like those you had at the start.
 
I loved getting a bone density scan---my bones were 175% of normal. He told me that I really do have "big bones", which just made my day!!!
 
I've had several bone scans, as I did once have a condition that made me lose bone density. My bone density is now very good. Sometimes, I use "heavy bones" to try and excuse my excess weight. :rotfl:
 
I am dense boned, and unfortunately 60 pounds over weight. But I am improving I was 100, but lost it getting ready for my first knee surgery. Now with a revision I hope to be back on the weight loss train in the gym. Yes, the revision has already taken off 10 pounds. That's just a bonus.


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Rob - This is not Jean but I think Jean was in our July surgery group and if I remember right getting bilateral knee surgery as well and about my age. We were the "twinkies" in the July group. Glad to hear you are doing well. Have you started playing tennis yet?

My doctor knew that I planned to ride horses again after I recovered. I did not get the original knees that he had planned on due to an allergy to nickel that was found pre op. He knew that the knees he was going to put in me would be horse back when I got healed up.

SarahJane - I think that I can call my physical therapist anytime and they would be happy to answer questions for me. When I asked last time, one of the therapists that worked with me said that fluid motion was good and avoid anything with hard impact. I know they stressed walk walk walk. Some of the exercises that they had me do in PT to strengthen the knee make me confused as to if they are things I should still be doing like they had me step on and off over a step. Would that be something that I should or shouldn't keep doing. I hadn't thought about jitterbug and swing being on limits but I guess it does make sense. Is line dancing off limits too as you do turns, heel, toe or just if you are realling coming down hard on them? I was two stepping Saturday night and even with that I was really careful with change of directions.

I actually had a bone density test done around 3 of years ago. It was to check it after being on anti-cancer medicine to see if it had affected it. My bone density is normal for my age other than that my knees were destroyed by the drugs.
 
I had bilateral tkrs on 7/7/15. I still have trouble getting down on my knees and a kind of numbness on top of both knees. I have assumed the numbness is the nerves still trying to heal. Is this normal? Will I ever be able to get down on my knees without extreme pain? Is it even good to kneel after total knee replacements?
 
Hi Cowgal,
The numbness you are having is normal and can take quite awhile to heal. Numb area after TKR: how long will it last?
Kneeling is OK after TKR. Some of us can kneel, for others it is too painful or feels funny.
You are less than a year out, and are still healing, give it time and you may be able to kneel.
 
I hear ya'. I do (TKRs done one year apart), but briefly and on padding. Recently I had to stain and urethane my front door, and the lower parts were difficult- I'd kneel for a few seconds, then sit on my hip, then reverse the process. My door is now finished and I am pretty good at getting down and up from the floor!
 
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As far as kneeling is concerned; I didn't think I would be able to but now I don't have any trouble. If I am having a twinge in my knee I simply use a soft yoga mat. Takes care of the problem! :happydance:
 
I can kneel, but it feels strange. I started off by kneeling on the bed, then graduated to a soft cushion on te floor. Now I can kneel and the carpet, but i do not like to kneel on a hard floor. I guess the answer is that it all depends . . . Some people can kneel OK, some can kneel but don't like the feeling, and some prefer not to kneel at all.
 
My OS let me kneel six months post-BTKR, as the button inside of the patella had to fully attach. I can kneel now, and, while it does not hurt, it does feel very, very weird, so I try to avoid it at all costs.

If I do kneel, it is with some type of cushioning, and not for long.
 
cowgal said:
Will I ever be able to get down on my knees without extreme pain? Is it even good to kneel after total knee replacements?
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It's not a case of good or bad, but if it hurts, don't do it unless you're into masochism that is! I'm 5 and 1½ years on my knees and I still can't put any weight on them.

However, I'd really like you to define 'extreme pain'. Is that in the skin of your knees when putting weight on them or elsewhere?
 
[Bonesmart.org] Cowgal's post surgery thread
Kneeling may be one of the things we have to give up after TKR. I am almost 5 years post op and kneel only when I absolutely have to and with a memory foam cushion in hand. I can kneel on a hard surface momentarily to enable myself to get up off the floor or ground. It feels weird even on a cushion. We have had a couple of fellows way in the past who indicated that they could kneel again with no problems. I am so thankful for pain free knees for everything else that not kneeling easily is just no big deal!
 
Last year, I had to kneel on hard asphalt. I didn't like it at all, but I was very glad that i could do it.
We had a flood in the kitchen, at about 2 in the morning. I was alone at home, so I had to go out on our driveway to turn off the water main.
So, picture me in my PJs, first kneeling by torchlight, then lying flat on my stomach, with my arm down a hole, trying to turn off the water. :yikes:
After I had done it, I lay there for a while, before I gathered up the strength and courage to get back up again.

If I hadn't been able to kneel on that occasion, my entire house would have been flooded.
 
Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

Josephine the pain is in the knee cap area and it is too severe to even get down on a pillow or other cushioning things. I have assumed that it the nerves causing the pain. I want to be able to do exercises on the ground but between my sore knees and one arm with lymphedema from radiation when I went through cancer, it is just very very hard to get up off of the floor. I have thought about buying some DeWalt construction knee pads off of Amazon to see if they would be of any help.
 
They weren't any good for me!

I should really have given you this
Tell me the exact site of your pain using this chart?

[Bonesmart.org] Cowgal's post surgery thread


[Bonesmart.org] Cowgal's post surgery thread
 
I had planned on getting down on my knees last night to make sure of where all the pain was but my knees are pretty swollen up right now and I think I had better wait for them to go back down. I want to say from your chart it would be DRF1 through DLF4. The pain is only on the front and it is where my knees come into contact and thus the points that are bearing the weight when I kneel. So if you were to look at the front of the knee it would be on the lower half of it that meets the surface you are kneeling on. Thanks for your help.
 
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